This song was written from the perspective of the original Aborigine inhabitants of the Australian continent. It was penned by the band in response to the Australian government's return of the sacred monolith Uluru (known to us as Ayers Rock) to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
Midnight Oil has always used their music to enlighten their fans on important social and political issues, from environmental concerns to nuclear warfare. When Ayers Rock was given back to its traditional owners, they tasked the political band to write a song for a film that was being made about the occasion. Midnight Oil wrote "Beds Are Burning," "We Shall Not Be Released," and "The Dead Heart," the latter being the winner. As the result, the band was invited to go on tour of remote Indigenous communities with the Aborigine rock bands Warumpi Band and Gondwanaland. Midnight Oil was already familiar with Warumpi, who often played the Sydney pub circuit with the group in its earlier days.
The Blackfella/Whitefella tour ignited Midnight Oil's passion for Aborigine rights and influenced the entire Dust and Diesel album. Jim Moginie, the band's guitarist/keyboardist and lead songwriter, explained to Identity Theory: "We observed as young, white Australians the conditions out there, the poverty, the petrol sniffing, the health problems, the art, the deep culture, the dispossession, the respect the concept of family has, the great sense of humor and strength of the people, the natural beauty, all mixed up into a radicalizing experience. We wrote about our impressions on the Diesel record, which came out the next year. There was a definite snowball effect."
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